Dear Neighbors,
On Wednesday, Council took the first of three votes on the new Land Development Code (formerly known as CodeNext). The draft code and map passed on a 7-4 vote. I voted against along with Council Members Ann Kitchen, Leslie Pool and Kathie Tovo.
Many of you, along with hundreds of other Austinites, voiced your concerns about the draft code, maps, and process by attending the December 7th public hearing and/or communicating with me via email, phone, or in person. I have listened closely and read your messages carefully. I value each and every one of your opinions, and I will always take your points of view seriously. I would like to thank you for engaging and want you to know that my votes and proposed amendments reflected what I heard from you.
As you know, I was in the minority when council provided the underlying direction in May and for me this draft code is therefore flawed by design. I voted no on first reading because we are still far from getting this right.
Nonetheless, I will continue my work to improve the proposal as we move to second and third readings.
Today, I would like to highlight some of my specific points of concern related to the process, the emphasis on transition zones, and how well we are leveraging affordability.
Process: I continue to be concerned with how this process is unfolding, and I do not believe our current course is helping us rebuild the community’s trust.
On December 7th, over 500 Austinites came to testify before Council, resulting in over 10 hours of public comment. I do not believe we had sufficient time to digest the testimony, look into the issues that were raised, create amendments, and understand their implications before voting began on December 9th.
Council amendments were posted December 6th with additional amendments distributed on the dais. While we endeavored to discuss the intentions of amendments, there was not adequate time to understand the implications of some rather significant proposals nor mechanisms to think through how all the directions might interact.
Transition Areas: Perhaps the top concern I hear from constituents relates to transition areas encroaching on existing neighborhoods, sometimes extending over 10 lots deep.
What I find especially troubling is that data from city staff shows mapping missing middle housing zones (R4 and RM1) will yield less than 17,000 units in transition areas and across the city – less than five percent of our 397,000 unit housing capacity goal.
In other words, we can accomplish over 95% of our housing goals without extensive transition areas. I believe we should carefully consider whether such a return is worth creating so much anxiety in the community. Instead of intensifying transition areas, I prefer growth be targeted in our Imagine Austin centers and along corridors.
Affordability: From my perspective, the adopted approach relies too heavily on rapidly unleashing the market and expecting the kind of development envisioned in Imagine Austin to follow. I believe we should be tying increased entitlements to affordability requirements. Instead, we have set our base entitlements so high that there will be little incentive to access the proposed affordability bonuses. This is true on the corridors and in the neighborhoods. By automatically increasing entitlements without requiring certain levels of affordability, I believe we are giving up one of our best tools for assuring the creation of affordable units along with new market rate units. I also remain concerned about how the direction to calibrate the size of allowed development (floor to area ratio) with the number of units will be operationalized.
During first reading, I agreed with and advocated for some of the broad directions, including: reducing the potential for gentrification in vulnerable areas, disincentivizing McMansions, fixing the preservation incentive, and strengthening protections for lot-to-lot flooding. However, in my view, we landed in a place with too many unknowns and too many outstanding questions about the kind of development we would be incentivizing.
Some of my colleagues’ amendments reached well beyond the direction established in May, pushing to go farther than staff recommended to further reduce parking requirements, increase entitlements, and create the potential for higher impervious cover limits. Some amendments failed that would have taken important steps towards addressing infrastructure needs, providing greater sensitivity to where additional housing is mapped, strengthening environmental safeguards, and ensuring petition rights for property owners.
Though I was disappointed with the overall outcome of the deliberations, Council did approve some amendments to improve flaws in the proposal, including six amendments I authored:
- Prioritizing additional density in Imagine Austin Centers, starting with regional centers such as the Domain and the North Burnet Gateway Station, instead of upzoning in residential neighborhoods outside of those activity centers.
- Saving greenspaces and other unbuildable open space zones within Homeowner Associations by zoning them accordingly rather than zoning them for development.
- Removing personal storage as a by-right use on all transportation corridors to leave more room for residential uses.
- Increasing the requirements to include affordable housing units in commercial areas that have been zoned to be mixed use developments.
- Directing Land Development Code (LDC) staff to clearly define “residential unit” and preserve important regulations prohibiting the construction of “McMansions” that are out of scale with existing residential neighborhoods.
- Deepening our collaboration with local school districts to make it easier for them to build new school infrastructure. This amendment also directs LDC staff to work with schools to ensure any parking requirement changes do not disrupt school operations and student transport.
Council expects second reading to occur in early February and third reading to take place around the end of March. As we move into the second and third readings, I will continue to work to improve the proposed Land Development Code, and I plan on bringing new amendments to each iteration of the draft code and map.
Your voices remain incredibly important to me in this process. If you have questions or comments about the land development code revisions, please do not hesitate to reach us via phone at (512) 978-2110 or via email at District10@austintexas.gov. My staff and I are more than happy to attend any neighborhood or community meetings to discuss this topic, and we will be holding office hours after the start of the new year to help answer your questions.
Regards,
Alison Alter
Council Member, District 10 |
